I will narrate a shloka [couplet] from the Shriimad Bhagavad Giitá:

Yadá yadá hi dharmasya glánirbhavati Bhárata;
Cábhyutthánamadharmasya tadátmánaḿ srjámyáham.

[O Bhárata, at a time when dharma is distorted and adharma is ascendant, I create myself out of my own fundamental factors.]

What is the meaning of yadá yadá? What is the meaning of yadá? Yadá means “at the proper moment”, “at the most opportune moment”. What is the proper moment, what is the most opportune moment? You know, for each and every job, for each and every duty, there is a best period, and that is the opportune moment. You have a particular time for transplantation of paddy seedlings, and a particular time for harvesting. And that time, or those times, are the most opportune moments for those particular jobs.

Here the Lord says:

Yadá yadá hi dharmasya glánirbhavati Bhárata;
Cábhyutthánamadharmasya tadátmánaḿ srjámyáham.

He says that “Whenever there is degradation of dharma and development of adharma, rule of adharma, regime of adharma, then, and in that particular moment, I recreate Myself.”

Now, what is the proper moment, what is the most opportune moment? As you know, in this universe of ours nothing moves – no force, no expression, no manifestation, moves – along a straight line. The movement is always pulsative; the movement is always of systaltic order, order of pause and start. There must be a stage of pause, and another stage just following the stage of pause – a stage of movement. And in each and every order of our individual and collective movement, all impurities, all degrading elements, all filths, accumulate in the phase of pause; and they are destroyed in the phase of movement. In our collective life there are similar small pauses and small periods of speed. But in our collective life, sometimes after a long span, after a long span of thousands of years, millions of years, there comes a certain special type of pause and speed. Generally the pauses and speeds that we find, and the accumulated filths that we get in the phase of pause, are properly cleared, and proper speed is given to the society by the great persons of the society, by the great personalities. In our philosophy, I have used the word sadvipra for those great personalities. But after a long span, when this phase of pause comes, and so many filths accumulate, so many impurities accumulate, it becomes difficult for the sadvipras to tackle the problem. It goes beyond their capacity to solve the problem. Under such circumstances, service from a greater personality is required. And just to give a proper medicinal dose to that society – that society will become just like a stagnant pool of water – Parama Puruśa sayeth in this shloka that “I come.” When? Yadá yadá hi dharmasya glánirbhavati Bhárata [“O Bhárata, at a time when dharma is distorted and adharma is ascendant”].

Addressing Arjuna, He says “Bhárata”. “Bhárata” here means Arjuna. The word bhárata comes from two Sanskrit root verbs: bhr and ta. Bhr means “to feed”, bharańa. Ta means “to expand”, “to develop”. Bhr + al = bhara, which means “feeding entity”. And tan + d́a = ta. Ta means “expanding entity” that helps you in your all-round expansion. So bharata means “the entity that feeds you and helps you in your all-round development”. Bha, ra, ta. And bharata plus śna, bhárata, means “pertaining to bharata”.

This land of ours [India] is known as Bháratavarśa. In Sanskrit, the word varśa has three imports: One meaning of varśa is rainy season; another meaning of varśa is “year”. 1979 is a varśa. And the third meaning of varśa is a desha [country] that can be identified, that can be properly demonstrated or pointed out. That one is signified in “Bháratavarśa”. “Bháratavarśa” means “the country that feeds you as well as as helping you in your all-around development”.

Here “Bhárata” means a king. Arjuna was a king. So he is “Bhárata”, because it was his duty to feed his people and to help his people in their all-round development. Addressing Bhárata, addressing the representative, Lord Krśńa says that “Whenever there is degradation of dharma and wherever adharma becomes prominent, becomes the dominating factor, and under such circumstances it becomes difficult for the sadvipras, the developed personalities, to tackle the situation, and under such circumstances I find no alternative but to come over here – tadátmánaḿ srjámyáham – ‘under such circumstances I create myself.’”

Now, what is dharma? Krśńa says: “Whenever there is degradation of dharma, depravation of dharma, degeneration of dharma…” So first we should know what dharma is. There are four synonymous words in Sanskrit: dhrti, dhárańam, dhárańá and dharma. Dhrti (dhr + ktin = dhrti) means “that holds an object”, that is, “holder”, “holding entity”. All your activitities, all your physical or psychic manifestations, are held or controlled by dharma, are controlled by a particular wont, a particular characteristic; and that particular wont, that particular attribution, is known as dharma.

For animals, there is a certain dharma. For human beings there is a certain dharma. And each and every entity will have to adhere to the codes of dharma, to its own code of dharma. And under no circumstances should a man or should a living being or should an inanimate being deviate from the path of dharma.

Shreyán svadharmo viguńah paradharmát svanuśt́hitát;
Svadharme nidhanaḿ shreyah paradharmo bhayávahah.

[It is better to follow one’s own human dharma, even if it lacks in some qualities, than to follow the dharmas of other beings. It is better to die as a human being than to live as an animal.]

“A man should die as a man, but must not encourage the propensities of animality.” Svadharme nidhanaḿ shreyah – “it is better to die as a human being, but not to live as an animal.” Paradharmo bhayávahah – paradharma means “that which is not the dharma of human beings”.⁽¹⁾

Footnotes

(1) The second half of this discourse, which has less relevance to the topics of Krśńa and the Giitá, appears as “The Ten Characteristics of Dharma” in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 8. –Trans.